As of the end of June there have been 88 reported active duty suicides this year in the Army. And there have been similar numbers in the recent past, though the numbers keep getting higher. In response to this situation, the U.S. Army has heightened suicide prevention efforts by establishing a task-force, improving policies, protocol, and resources, and recruiting more psychological and spiritual counselors.
Thus, military chaplains have been seeing an increasing amount of soldiers coming to them for some kind of assistance. In times such as these, what with the U.S. military engaged in warfare and spread out so thin, there is bound to be repercussions on the well-being of the soldiers. And this is precisely what military chaplains are for -- attending to the needs of the soldiers as human individuals.
Read the story by Vicki Brown of the United Methodist Reporter at Faith in Public Life.
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